[deb18]

Hi. Has anyone used this company for insulation or solar system? There has not been any reviews on any lists I can find. They are based out of St Pete. They use Cooperflect insulation and I cannot find much info on except the Cooperflect home page. Thanks for any info

[smarino]

I did a little looking on the web on the Copperflect principle (the company you mentioned is one that I have no knowledge of, they actually mean Copperflect nor Cooperflect, and they have it misspelled like that on their website, so that should tell you everything you need to know about their company), and it's basically what the word says. Copper sheathing that is used to reflect heat away from the structure.That's BS because you can't reflect heat, you can only reflect light (i.e. sun light). If you are using polished copper on the roofs to reflect light so that it isn't turned into heat that would heat the roof and home, that would work fine, but you have to wonder how far you can go w/ that before you start experiencing trouble w/ things that are receiving that reflected light, such as airplanes flying above it and anyone living in it's path in tall structures. Birds ain't gonna be happy w/ it either. Just tile or paint your roof white.

Some people say that it can be also used, somehow, as a radiant barrier inside attics to redirect heat back into the home during cooler months, but if you live in Florida you know that function is hardly something that we need! What cooler months? Reflecting heat back into a Florida home? No thank you. Anyway, it doesn't sound viable for this area of the world, in my mind. In fact, it doesn't sound viable, period. Metal is a lousy insulator, it conducts heat, not insulates things from it. Lay a wrench in the sun sometime and place it next to a Styrofoam cup, wait a few minutes, and see what happens when you touch them.

Florida is not just about heat caused by the sun, both by its light, as well as earth structures (buildings, roads, etc) absorbing that light, turning it into heat, and redirecting in back to structures and living beings. It's also about humidity. This sort of thing will have no effect on that, which is the main reason why we feel the heat here so much. Anyone that lives in Florida understands the old saw about heat vs humidity.